Transy to host NCAA Division III Golf Championship in 2019

by Staff

LEXINGTON, Ky. - The NCAA has selected Transylvania University as the host institution for the Division III Men's Golf championship in the 2018-2019 season, it announced on Tuesday afternoon.

Transylvania was awarded the right to host the 2019 NCAA Division III Men's National Championship, to be held at the Keene Trace Golf Club in nearby Nicholasville. Tuesday's announcement culminated a long bidding process that awarded Transylvania and its athletics program one of four championships across an upcoming four-year cycle running from 2019 through 2022.

"We are absolutely thrilled we were selected to host the 2019 NCAA Championship," commented Transylvania men's golf head coach Brian Lane. "Keene Trace has 36 unbelievable holes and both Champions and Keene Run will be a great test for some of the nation's best golfers."

The Keene Trace Golf Club features two full 18-hole courses in Champion Trace and Keene Run. The 2019 National Championship in Nicholasville will be the first of four upcoming championship sites for Division III Men's Golf awarded on Tuesday by the NCAA, in addition to over 600 other host sites announced by the association.

"This is a wonderful opportunity for Transylvania University and Central Kentucky," said Vice President for Enrollment and Student Life, Dr. Holly Sheilley. "It is an honor to be considered and selected by the NCAA to host this prestigious event, and we now look forward to the rewarding process of preparing to bring a championship event to Lexington and Nicholasville."

The Transylvania men's golf program is no stranger to competing in the NCAA Championship. The Pioneers are one of four teams who have qualified for the NCAA Championship for the last 10 years consecutively, finishing as the national runners-up in 2012 and 2013. Last season, the Pioneers won their 10th straight Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference championship and placed 12th nationally at the championships in Rochester, New York.

"To see our golf program grow to national prominence over the last decade has been unbelievable," continued Lane, now in his 12th year at the helm of the Pioneers men's golf team. "I am excited that we can now share that national exposure with the people here in Central Kentucky. It is a bigtime weeklong event that will bring impressive teams from all over the country to the Bluegrass."

While 2019 will mark the first time that Transylvania has hosted the NCAA Division III championship, it will not be an unfamiliar sight to Keene Trace. In 1993, when Champion Trace stood alone, the course served as the site of the NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championship, as it witnessed Florida defeat Georgia Tech for the title.